An Encyclopædia of Architecture, historical, theoretical, and practical

We will, having thus prepared the student, present an example of a valuation con. ducted on the principles named. Thus, suppose a building and the ground on which it stands to be together worth 150 per annum, and that its durability is such that a purchaser may count on receiving that rent during a term of fifty years. We will suppose the house to stand upon a plot of ground 24 feet in frontage, and 60 feet in depth; that the size of the house is 24 feet by 40 feet, and that to build a similar one would cost 1440l., which, at a rate of 7 per cent upon the expenditure, would produce a building rent of 100l. 16s per annum.

Now the total rent being - - - - - 150 0 0 The rent arising from the building itself - - 100 16 0 The value of the mere ground must be - - - 49 4 o

We therefore here have the imperishable part, viz. the ground, of the value of 49l. 4s. per annum, which, giving the purchaser 4 per cent. interest for his money, is twenty-five years' purchase for the fee-simple by the Fourth Table, that is - - -. - - - 1230 0 0

An annuity (from the building) of 100l. 16s., to continue for fifty years, is, by the Fourth Table at 5 per cent., worth 18.256 years' purchase, that is - - - - - - - - 1840 0 11

The value of the old materials at the end of the term, if taken to be pulled down and sold for 150l., will be that sum at the end of fifty years to be received at the present time, discounting at 5 per cent. from the Second Table -1 107 x 150 - - - - = 16 12 1

Total value of the freehold - - . 3O86 13 O

In the above valuation the ground estimated by its frontage would be £-41s. per foot, and ground is usually let by the foot when demised for building.

The next case of valuation is that of a beneficial lease, in which the rent paid by the lessee is less than the actual value of the premises. The difference between them, therefore, is an annuity for the term of the lease, which is so much benefit to the lessee, and is estimated by the Fourth Table; thus,—

If the term of the lease be twenty-one years, such is the length of the annuity, and the question stands as under:

An annuity for twenty-one years, discounting at 5 per cent., is by the Fourth Table worth 12.8211 years' purchase, which multiplied by 50l. = - £641 1s.

It is to be observed that the annuities must be clear after the deduction of all outgoings which may be necessary to keep it unencumbered.

In the valuation of warehouses, the only safe method of coming at the value of a rental is by the quantity of goods or tonnage they will contain, after leaving proper gangways, and not overloading the floors. In corn warehouses, however, the grain being distributed over the surface of the floor, the squares of floor are taken to come at the contents. Goods warehoused are paid for to the warehouseman usually at a weekly or monthly rent; and it is commonly considered that the profit he should make ought to be one half of the rent he pays to the landlord, so that in fact two thirds of the actual rent realised goes to the proprietor, and the other third to the warehouseman or lessee. The following is a table of the space occupied by different goods:

The mean of the above is 38.853 cube feet to a ton; and, indeed, 40 feet is the usual allowance taken by warehousemen, 35 feet being that calculated in shipping. - Sugar in hogsheads will be found to be about 69 cube feet to the ton. Thus, a. hogshead 3 ft. 6 in high, 3 ft. 4 in. diameter at the ends, and 3 ft. 11 in. in the middle, weighs about 15 cwt.

The following are the usual dimensions and weights of tea in the chests, which, however, are not always uniform : –

Wheat, taking the average weight of a Winchester bushel at 60 lbs., will give 48:13 cube feet to a ton.

In the valuation of leases held on lives, the operation, after bringing the rent to a clear annuity, is combucted by uoans of the sixth, seventh, and eighth tables, as the case may require.

ABAciscus. A word sometimes used as synonymous with abacus, but more correctly applied to a square compartment enclosing a part or the entire pattern or design of a Mosaic pavement. ABAcus. (Gr. Aéač, a slab.) The upper member of the capital of a column, and serving as a crowning both to the capital and to the whole column. It is otherwise defined by some as a square table, list, or plinth in the upper part of the capitals of columns, especially of those of the Corinthian order, serving instead of a drip or corona to the capital, and supporting the nether face of the architrave, and the whole trabeation. In the Tuscan, Doric, and ancient Ionic orders, it is a flat square member, well enough resembling the original title; whence it is called by the French tailloir, that is, a trencher, and by the Italians credenza. In the richer orders it parts with its original form, the four sides or faces of it being arched or cut inwards, and ornamented in the middle of each face with a rose or other flower, a fish's tail, &c.; and in the Corinthian and Composite orders it is composed of an ovolo, a fillet, and a cavetto. The word is used by Scamozzi to signify a concave moulding in the capital of the Tuscan pedestal. ABATE, NICHOLAs. See ARCHITECTs, list of 240. ABAToN. (Gr. Aéarov, an inaccessible place.) A building at Rhodes, mentioned by Vitruvius, lib. ii., entrance whereof was forbidden to all persons, because it contained a trophy and two bronze statues erected by Artemisia in memory of her triumph in surprising the city. ABArroir. (Fr. Abattre, to knock down.) A building appropriated to the slaughtering of cattle. See p. 797. ABBEY. (Fr. Abbaie.) Properly the building adjoining to or near a convent or monastery, for the residence of the head of the house (abbot or abbess). It is often used for the church attached to the establishment, as also for the buildings composing the whole establishment. In such establishments the church was usually grand, and splendidly decorated. They had a refectory, which was a large hall in which the monks or nuns had their meals; a guest hall, for the reception and entertainment of visitors; a parlour or locutory, where the brothers or sisters met for conversation; a dormitory, an almonry, wherefrom the alms of the abbey were distributed; a library and museum; a prison for the refractory, and cells for penance. The sanctuary was rather a precinct than a building, in which offenders were, under conditions, safe from the operation of the law. Granges, or farm buildings, and abbatial residences. Schools were usually attached for the education of youth, with separate accommodations for the scholars. A singing school, a common room, with a fire in it, for the brothers or sisters to warm themselves, no other fire being allowed, except in the apartments of the higher officers. A min', for coining, and a room called an exchequer. The abbey was always provided with a churchyard, a garden, and a bakehouse. The sacristy contained the garments of the priests, and the vessels, &c.; vestiaria or wardrobes being assigned for the monks. Many of the ordinary duties of these persons were performed in the cloisters where they delivered their lectures. ABELE TREE. A species of white poplar, enumerated among woods by Vitruvius (book ii.
chap. ix.) as being, in many situations, serviceable from its “toughness,” and also from its colour and lightness fitting it for carvings. ABREuvoir. (Fr.) A watering-place for horses. In masonry it is the joint between two stones, or the interstice to be filled up with mortar or cement, when either are to be used. Absciss, or Abscissa. (Lat. Ab and Scindo.) A geometrical term, denoting a segment cut off from a straight line by an ordinate to a curve. ABsis. See Apsis. Abstract. A term in general use among artificers, surveyors, &c. to signify the collecting together and arranging under a few distinct heads the various small quantities of different articles which have been employed in any work, and the affixing of a price to determinate portions of each, as per square, per foot, per pound, &c., for the purpose of more expeditiously and conveniently ascertaining the amount. See p. 620, et seq. Abuse. A term applied to those practices in architecture which, arising from a desire of innovation, and often authorised by custom, tend to unfix the most established principles, and to corrupt the best forms, by the vicious way in which they are used. Palladio has given a chapter on them in his work. He reduces them to four principal ones: the first whereof is the introduction of brackets or modillions for supporting a weight; the second, the practice of breaking pediments so as to leave the centre part open; third, the great projection of cornices; and, fourth, the practice of rusticating columns. Had Palladio lived to a later day, he might have greatly increased his list of abuses, as Perrault has done in the following list: the first whereof is that of allowing columns and pilasters to penetrate one another, or be conjoined at the angles of a building. The second, that of coupling columns, which Perrault himself in the Louvre has made almost excusable; the third, that of enlarging the metopae in the Doric order, for the purpose of accommodating them to the intercolumniations; the fourth, that of leaving out the tailloir in the inferior part of the modern Ionic capital; the fifth, that of running up an order through two or three stories, instead of decorating each story with its own order; the sixth, that of joining, contrary to the practice of the ancients, the plinth of the column to the cornice of the pedestal, by means of an inverted cavetto; the seventh, the use of architrave cornices; the eighth, that of breaking the entablature of an order over a column, &c. &c. ABUTMENT. (According to some, from the French aboutir, to abut, among whom the learned Spelman; but according to others, from the Saxon abucan, about.) The solid part of a pier from which the arch immediately springs. Abutments are artificial or natural: the former are usually formed of masonry or brickwork, and the latter are the rock or other solid materials on the banks of the river, in the case of a bridge, which receive the foot of the arch. It is obvious that they should be of sufficient solidity and strength to resist the thrust of the arch. See p. 401, et seq., and ARCH in this glossary. ABUTTALs. The buttings or boundings of land. AcANTHUs. (Akavdos, a spine.) A spiny herbaceous plant found in various parts of the Levant. Its leaf is said by Vitruvius to have been the model on which the Grecian architects formed the leaves of the Corinthian capital. See p. 61. AcER. (Celt. Ac, a point; Lat. Acer, sharp.) A genus of trees comprehending the maple and sycamore, the wood whereof is not of much value. That of the acer campestre furnishes the cabinet-makers with what they call bird's-eye maple. Accesses. See PAssAGE. Accide.NTAL Point. In perspective, the point in which a straight line drawn from the eye parallel to another straight line cuts the perspective plane. It is the point wherein the representations of all straight lines parallel to the original straight line concur when produced. Its name is adopted to distinguish it from the principal point or point of view. See PERspective, p. 649, et seq. Acoustics. (Gr. Axotia, to hear.) The doctrine or theory of sounds, as applicable to buildings. See p. 801, et seq., THEATRE. AcRoroLis. (Gr. Akpos and IIoxts, city.) The upper town or citadel of a Grecian city, usually the site of the original settlement, and chosen by the colonists for its natural strength. The most celebrated were those of Athens, Corinth, and Ithome, whereof the two latter were called the horns of the Peloponnesus, as though their possession could secure the submission of the whole peninsula. AcRorer 1A. (Gr. Akparrmptov, the extremity of anything.) The pedestals, often without base or cornice, placed on the centre and sides of pediments for the reception of figures. Vitruvius says that the lateral acroteria ought to be half the height of the tympanum, and the apex acroterium should be an eighth part more. No regular proportion, however, is observable in Grecian buildings. The word acroterium is applied to the ridge of a building; it has also been used to signify the statues on the pedestals; but it is only to these latter that it is strictly applicable. The word has moreover been given to the small pieces of wall in balus

trades, between the pedestal and the balusters, and again for the pinnacles or other ornaments which stand in ranges on the horizontal copings or parapets of buildings. Acurr-ANGLen TRIANGLE. A triangle having all its angles acute. Every triangle has at least two acute angles. Acute ANGLE. A term used in geometry to denote an angle less than 90°, that is, less than a right angle. ADAM, Roseat. See ARCHITECrs, list of 302. ADAMs, Rob ERT. See ARchitects, list of 244. Adhesion (Lat. Adhaereo.) A term in physics denoting the force with which different bodies remain attached to each other when brought into contact. It must not be confounded with cohesion, which is the force that unites the particles of a homogeneous body with each other. The following is an account of some experiments recorded in the Technical Repository for 1824. “The insertion of a nail is accomplished by destroying the cohesion of the wood, its extraction by overcoming the force of adhesion and friction. We will consider it here solely as a case of adhesion. Fine sprigs, of which 4560 weighed one pound, # of an inch long, forced four tenths of an inch into dry Christiana deals at right angles to the fibre, required a force of 22 lbs. to extract them. The same description of nail having 3200 in the pound, #5 of an inch long, and forced # of an inch into the same kind of wood, required 37 lbs. to extract it. Threepenny brads, 618 to the pound weight, one and a quarter inch long, forced half an inch into the wood, required a force of 72 lbs. to draw them out. Fivepenny nails, 139 to the pound weight, two inches long, and forced one inch and a half into the wood, required a force of 170 lbs. to extract them. The same kind of nail forced one inch and a half into the wood required 327 lbs. to draw it out. In this last experiment the nail was forced into the wood by a hammer of cast iron weighing 627 lbs. falling from a height of twelve inches, four blows of which were necessary to force the nail an inch and a half into the wood. It required a pressure of 400 lbs. to force the nail to the same depth. A sixpenny mail driven one inch into dry elm across the grain or fibres required 327 lbs. to draw it out by direct force; driven endwise into dry elm, or parallel with the grain, it required only 257 lbs. to extract it. The same sort of nail driven into dry Christiana deal was extracted by a force equal to 257 lbs., and by one of 87 lbs. from a depth of an inch. The adhesion, therefore, of a nail driven into elm across the grain, or at right angles to the fibres of the wood, is greater than when it is driven with the grain, or parallel with the fibres, in the proportion of 100 to 78, or 4 to 3. And under the same circumstances, in dry Christiana deal, as 100 to 46, or nearly 2 to 1. The comparative adhesion of nails in elm and deal is between 2 and 3 to 1. To extract a sixpenny nail driven one inch into green sycamore required 312 lbs.; from dry oak, 507 lbs., and from dry beach, 667 lbs. A common screw of one fifth of an inch had an adhesion about three times as great as that of a sixpenny nail. A common sixpenny nail driven two inches into dry oak would require more than half a ton to extract it by pressure.” Apri (Lat. Adeo), or ADITUs. The approach or entrance to a building, &e. Among the ancients the aditus theatri, or adits of a theatre, were doorways opening on to the stairs, by which persons entered the theatre from the outer portico, and thence descended into the seats. Upon the same principle were the adits of a circus. An AcENT ANGLE, in geometry, is an angle immediately contiguous to another, so that one side is common to both angles. This expression is more particularly applied to denote that the two angles have not only one side in common, but likewise that the other two sides form one straight line. Any ruM. (Gr. Aëvrov, a recess.) The secret dark chamber in a temple to which none but the priests had access, and from which the oracles were delivered. Seneca, in his tragedy of Thyestes says, – * Hine orantibus Responsa dantur certa, dum ingenti sono Laxantur adyto fata.” Among the Egyptians the secos was the same thing, and is described by Strabo. The only well-preserved ancient adytum that has come to our knowledge is in the little temple at Pompeii; it is raised some steps above the level of the temple itself, and is without light. Abze, or Appice. An edged tool used to chip surfaces in an horizontal direction, the axe being employed to chop materials in vertical positions. The blade, which is of iron, forms a small portion of a cylindric surface in both its sides, and has a wooden handle fixed into a socket at one of its extremities, in a radial direction, while the other extremity, parallel to the axis of the cylinder, and therefore at right angles to the handle, is edged with steel, and ground sharp from the concave side. The adze is chiefly employed for taking off thin chips from timber or boards, and for paring away irregularities at which the axe cannot come. It is also used in most joinings of carpentry, particularly when notched upon one another, scarfings, thicknesses of flooring boards opposite to the joints, &c.